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How Business Unit Managers Carry Out Strategies And Not Lose Market Share

One of the most exciting part of any business is setting business unit objectives and carrying out marketing and field sales for business unit products and services. The plan needs to be strong, sustainable. It’s crucial for the business unit manager to ask: Does the business have the right people and the right talent and working capital to carry out the overall plan?

For any business to develop strategy, it needs to assume who buys the products and how the economy, demographics, government rules for new technologies or partnerships between competitors or other reasons affect buying patterns. Second, the sales approach changes depending on who decides and who influences what to buy. Third, business unit managers need to know what blocks the growth of the unit. If product value isn’t obvious, then we need alternate methods to add value, such as adding another service, which complements the products. An important method is grouping the market by its customers and then using a different market message to each group. Each group will have different competitors, channels, economics and price.

Next, businesses need to anticipate competitors, their reactions to new product prices or their ability to carry out projects. Business unit managers need to have just the right approach so they don’t overestimate or underestimate competitor actions. For this, they need to grasp their own ability to swiftly carry out projects and bring products to market compared to others. The sales strategy could then shift to referrals from one main customer. This would cascade to more customers and greater market share.

Business unit managers need to have just the right approach so they don’t overestimate or underestimate competitor actions. For this, they need to grasp their own ability to swiftly carry out projects and bring products to market compared to others.

While the sales strategy takes shape, it also needs to have milestones so business unit managers can measure their progress. Sometimes, it’s necessary to adapt the plan to the new market. In developing the strategy, business unit managers need to know how to keep it nimble to changes in cash flow or customer preferences, which could change at the blink of an eye. If the overall plan doesn’t take care of productivity, costs and the right people, it could increase risks in making it work. Business unit managers need to know what they need from the start of the plan to the time it yields full results.

In the next step, the business needs to check for critical issues it faces. Is it low cost production? Is it declining sales? Such issues need new plans such as new market groups or new methods to make business unit products at low cost. Finally, the business unit manager needs to answer the question on steady business unit profitability. For this to happen, the business will need to check pricing for demand levels, cost plan, cash for working capital, actions for sales growth, marketing investment and its returns, technologies and competitor reactions.

Written by Suresh Iyengar, P.E., President, Business Unit Execution LLC––“Explosive Business Coaching Houston Results For Small Business”. Want even faster results? Are you ready to learn? Call 281.410.5375 and speak to your Profitability Coach Houston today!